Vote On This Week’s Freshmen Videos

Matt Hires is a 23 year old Florida native with a sweet voice, displayed on debut album Take Us to the Start. After working on their album for the past two years, Hotspur was wildly excited to release You Should Know Better By Now in June. A master at mixing genres, Chino Maurice brings his unique style of funk to mtvU’s Freshmen. Pill’s track “Glass” is the first release off his upcoming mix tape 4075: The Refill. Hailing from upstate New York, Super 400 is fresh off the release of their album Sweet Fist.

Matt Hires

“Honey, Let Me Sing You a Song”

Very light and sweet. This is the type of song we can wistfully spend a couple of hours day-dreaming about, wishing that someone would pen us such a tune. No? His plaintive pleas to the camera are heart-wrenching, but I would have liked to see more action in this video. Where’s the actual girl? Where’s the kiss?

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Hotspur

“Chandelier”

These boys perform with a lot of panache and drama, which is always entertaining. At first the lyrics struck me as being a little over the top, tons of hopeless desperation, but then again. Who hasn’t felt this way in the throes of love? I imagine this group has quite a bit of fun on stage and leaves their audience enthralled.

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Chino Maurice

“Oh My Lord”

I happen to know that Maurice is a pretty talented musician who can play a wide variety of instruments, and you really do have to stop and say, “This guy is one hell of a guitar player.” But this song plays more as a tribute to me than anything else, as if he is paying respect to those past musicians he greatly admires. It’s catchy and it displays his skills very nicely. However, I would like to see original music from him before I make a final judgment. The video does carry a nice blend of the dusty, odd, and unique; quite adept at setting the tone.

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Pill

“Glass”

I can’t speak to the experience of this video, but Pill’s voice carries such raw, plaintive emotion that the overall effect is quite powerful. The disturbing video images carry the weight of his message and, personally, I think it was a very smart decision to shoot it in black and white. Without color, it signifies the emptiness and weight of what is taking place.

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Super 400

“Flashlight”

Love how this band is enjoying itself, having fun with the music, and basically just plain rocking out with a bad-ass woman as its “front man.” I like the idea of all these secret feelings being vented behind a closed door and the way the themes run together and convene at the end is a nice touch.

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Who will you be voting for this week? Let me know in the comments section below.